Doctor_Jackson:
Hmm, good question. The new holiday should be in August, because that’s a holiday dry month in the US. But what can we celebrate? What august August occasion makes the most sense? I know! My birthday! That’s in August!
Everyone gets the day off work with pay! To show their appreciation for the free money, everyone in the US (and ex-pats) will send me $1.00. Just 1 measly dollar for a whole day off - what a bargain! Shoot, I’ll even send myself a dollar!
I’ll start the Congressional Application for Mandatory Federal Holiday paperwork immediately!
I submit that it should be called “Imperial Day” and be celebrated in honor of ALL of us with our Most August Birthdays my Good Doctor Jackson…
JRDelirious:
But still it piles up the repurposed drinking holidays (Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s, Cinco de Mayo) (hmmm… strong Catholicism influence there) on the first half of the year. We need a drinking holiday in September.
thought that’s what labor day was for.
bordelond:
You know what’s funny about Diwali and Holi?
From the point of view of this American, who has known and interacted with Indian folks all my life, neither holiday apparently existed before ~10 years ago. For all I know, the writers of (the American) The Office basically invented Diwali for an episode roughly a decade ago. But since then, Diwali has had a profile – my kids’ schools do a little something for it, and the Indian people we know now seem to let us in on their celebrations.
And Holi? First time I ever saw hide/hair of Holi when some Indian friends of ours showed up at a regular ol’ American birthday party full of colored stuff all over their face and clothes. That was a mere two years ago. But since then, I see plenty of references to Holi – no local celebrations outside of the Indian community yet, though. The schools don’t seem to have caught on just yet.
So … the mystery to me is this: why didn’t the dozens of Indian kids I went to school with, or the Indian neighbors I ate out of house and home in the 1980s … how did I not get exposed to these holidays? At least hearing of them? Could there have been some kind of cultural reticence about it? Or is it maybe that some parts of India (and/or some cultures) don’t celebrate them? If Diwali and Holi are not big among Sikhs, or among folks that live around Mumbai, that would explain some things.
Perhaps it’s an age issue. You were a child dealing with other children. And children want to fit in with their peers. So the Indian-American children you knew might have wanted to do American stuff around you and avoided talking about anything Indian in their households.